I'm working on decorating my dorm room, and am planning on making a forest on a long shelf in my room, and then creating a mountain/sky mural behind it, and adding the rising sun behind that...

But for the forest part, I'm thinking about building a planter and filling it with potting soil, and then planting some dwarf pine trees/shrubbery's . Right now all I have is one "tropical foliage" from Walmart, and I haven't built the planter or anything yet.

Any thoughts? I'm going to have to leave them over Christmas break, so tropical plants will probably die, right? (If not from cold, from lack of water) That's my main reason for focusing on small pine stuff. Pine trees are hardy enough to survive a month without being watered, right?

Would temperatures in my room cause any problems, being too warm or too cold?
The trees I'm thinking about buying are about $5 each and come with a "1 year guarantee."
I also plan on throwing in a waterfall/pond area. The shelf is about 1'x6'.

I remember talking about horticulture once.. My dad freaked out. He though it was some type of porn, or something. I was like 12, and my school had a class on it. :/

Dwarf everything needs a lot of water and careful observation. I really think you should consider starting it after christmas, or install an auto water system :-V

I think you should grow marijuana.

You said a dorm room. Are you gonna be moving after this year?

There are some longterm watering options for plants, there are some things that will release a gel that then releases water out into the soil to water plants. I don't know any of the brandnames of them but if you've got any store that usually has "gardencenter" type stock, they should have it and its a good vacation length watering solution, i don't know how long it will get you though.

If they're pine trees, I'll probably take them out back and put them in the forest for summer, and try to retrieve them when I come back next year. I can't do anything to my room that is a permanent change, and in May I'll have to clean out the room.

You can lead a whore to culture, but you can't make her think.

We want . . . . (dramatic tone) a shrubbery!

I'm either going to do small pine trees, shrubberies, or bamboo. Bamboo would go well with the more-or-less East Asia theme of my room, but I have no idea where I'm going to find some bamboo. Apparently, though, it's very easy to grow.

they sell bamboo in like, every single store with any form of plants around here. We have some that doesn't even require watering.. although its kept in the bathroom, which is pretty humid from showers and such.

Well, I know you can lead a hor-

DAMMIT. I thought I was gonna be clever.

-Eh, I'd advise skipping the whole thing until you've got a more solid residence than a Dorm Room.

I develop bonsai as a hobby, and as such, I know quite a bit about things like this.

Very few trees will survive indoors for more than a few weeks. Conifers certainly won't, (there go your pine trees) and deciduous trees will last for a few months (they may even grow a bit) but there will come an inevitable time where they will suddenly drop their leaves and die.

There are trees that will live indoors, any ficus species being one of them. A ficus won't thrive indoors, but it will survive indefinitely if you keep it moist.

As far as planting and then removing pine trees, DON'T do it. They probably wouldn't survive. Pines are hard to care for even when you handle them properly.

What about bamboo?

I think I had the best and most profitable solution.

My advice is that you go to school to learn.

Bamboo should be fine indoors; I've seen it everywhere.

Just don't put it in the ground, or else it will quickly replicate out of control.

Fukien Tea and Poinsettia are two other plants that do well indoors. Just give them lots of light and keep the temperature above 55 Fahrenheit.

I have to agree with Vinny. If you do it right, it's really not difficult to grow, and can make you a fine penny. Planting it out in the middle of nowhere has the added benefit that no one can link it to you. Setting traps that alert you that someone's been there is also a good idea, that way you can avoid being traced, discovered, or ID'd by bugs or heists on your green.